Kielder 100 Report
100 miles, around a forest, how hard can it be?
That's the same question I asked myself after also wondering if I was crazy for getting up at 5 am in the dark, with the rain to try and cycle 100 miles around the Kielder forest.
It all seemed like a proper challenge when Doc suggested this some 3 or 4 months ago and once 5 of us Doc, Lloydy, Scouse (Steve), Tony and myself had decided that we were up for it then the training began and any climb out on our Wednesday nights and Sunday mornings was to help make Kielder easier and more palatable .... and did we climb some hills.... So come Friday and we're travelling up to Kielder stopping on route for a fantastic lunch and a couple of beers, also known as carb loading. At the campsite we pitched our tents in lovely sunshine and set about getting registered and the kit checked at the castle. Then with nothing else to do we decided to do more carb loading at the Anglers Arms Kielder's only pub.
Whilst sitting enjoying ourselves we got chatting to a chap called Ben from Leeds who pretty quickly gained a lot of respect as he was going to do the 100 miles on a singlespeed with 29" wheels and no suspension, in fact the amount of singlespeed bikes around was pretty surprising considering Kielder isn't flat by any means. We liked Ben, he had done the event before and gave us a few insights into what to expect and also gave us some hope because after all we had gears and suspension ... How hard could this be?.... Ben also commented on a conversation he had overheard about an entrant being so prepared he had even strapped a spare tyre to his crossbar.... better safe than sorry hey Scouse?.
We retired back to our tents after the obligatory pasta dish at the castle and just in case we had a couple of "Squadron Scrambles", some of Trings finest just too be sure we had enough carbs on board and to avoid dehydration.... the midges also decided to join us and help relieve us of any spare blood we didn't want too, a Kielder feature apparently.
Saturday (RACE Day)... oh yes it's a race too.
So it's raining.. it's 5am, dark, carbed up to your eyeballs, and trying to get dressed in a tent made for 2.... I must be crazy!
Once up and with our faithful companions (the bikes as well as each other) we join the 800 other competitors at the castle and wait for the 6:30 start, with backpacks that feel slightly too heavy and wondering if 1kilo of energy gels is going to be enough, the banter is flowing and eyeing up the competitions bikes takes place. The start is interesting with a 2 mile ride out behind a car and some jostling and handlebar knocking and nobody really saying a lot, before long we begin to stretch out and with a few bottlenecks the routine of fire road climb followed by fire road descent begins, a pattern we would experience quite a bit that day.
The route was pretty disorientating but the signs and the marshalling were excellent, after trying to find a comfortable pace I soon found that the Orange was outpacing many others on the downhills which was great fun and would hold it's own going up too, the climbs some of them would be 15-20 mins followed but a shortish down or a lovely piece of singletrack with berms and jumps again Orange 5 territory and a nice way to forget about the climbs for a while. That was the highlight.... no I'm serious the rain didn't stop, just the angle of it altered, on the exposed parts of the route it was bloody cold and the mud and puddles were incredible in places ,which also acted like grinding paste slowly chewing it's way through brakes for fun... I knew my brakes were in trouble when at the bottom of a long fire road descent and giving it some Banzai attack the back brake pretty much touched the handlebars and the front wasn't much better and I nearly ran out of Kielder forest, it wasn't just me either when I decided to change brake pads as I could see swarf appearing where my pads used to be, there were some 20 other riders with the same issue.... add to this chain suck when going into the granny ring and the mud covering everything including the insides of your eyelids it was becoming a bit of a slog, the final straw for me was mud in the eye on a fast fire road descent followed by a speed way type slide as my back wheel got caught on one side of the centre section of the track whilst my front wheel was on the other, then it swapped sides twice!!! proper arse off the seat stuff and by some miracle I got it under control.. if I had of come off it would have been big (think challenge for "Crash of the year" big)....
I caught up with Lloydy and Scouse at the 50 odd mile feed station and declared to the guys I was retiring, they heroically were going to challenge for the finish and we went our separate ways.. I wasn't the only one who had had enough there were a few of us who decided enough was enough and after 7 hours 2 sets of braked pads eating enough sand to build a sandcastle, a hot shower and a pint of carbs was calling me... On the plus side the singletrack we were sent down back to Kielder was superb and really finished the ride of with a smile and a few whoops as jumps were pumped and berms railed....
So after a hot shower some food and a change of clothes, I met up with Tony and we decided to get a little drunk and watch the rain from the warmth of the inside of the Anglers Rest we were joined by Ben who had retired at 62 miles (I think) and also had tales of brakes dissolving and riding through puddles as deep as the top of your forks. Then Doc who looked as tired as we felt and finally Lloydy and Scouse so all back in one piece wondering about what if's and maybes. (If Scouse hadn't paid the piper at the entry to Scotland he would have made the cut off and been able to attempt to finish. Lloydy was dogged with 2 punctures within minutes of each other and the lack of brakes.....
On the whole the camaraderie from fellow competitors was excellent and at times you could chat to a complete stranger riding alongside you for miles, some guys had attempted both the previous events and not finished and come back to do battle with Kielder again, they must be crazy!!!!
The results were:
Tony 46 miles
R4th and Doc 50 miles
Lloydy and Scouse 64 miles (Steve missed the cut off by 7 seconds!!!!!!)
Out of 800 starters 180 finished, the winner did it in just over 8 hours.
Think your up for a challenge?... Lloydy is muttering things about unfinished business next year. I'm sure if the weather had been kinder then it would have felt much more pleasant to take part in what is described as probably the hardest race the UK has to offer. Me, personally not my cup of tea to be honest but at least I've had a go and got the T-shirt, what I have spent nearly a whole day doing is emptying sand out of the 5 and my kit, it's not just the rider who gets a work out!
R4th
Read the report from MARATHONMTB